


Alone Together

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Grief/Mourning, HP: EWE, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-20 09:26:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6000829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A week after the final battle, George finds himself alone. So does Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Plaid_Slytherin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/gifts).



A week after the final battle, George left St. Mungo’s. The memorial for those who had died was in the morning, and in the afternoon he found himself alone outside their - his - shop. He held the magical key in his hand, but somehow he couldn’t get his hand to move any closer to the door. This was their shop, their apartment, their dream; how could he go in alone?

Eventually he heard a voice ask, “need a hand?”

Feeling as though he had just unfrozen, George turned to look at Harry. The boy hero was standing a few feet away, his hands shoved in his pockets, with a lost look on his face. “What?” George managed to ask.

“Need a hand?” Harry repeated, shrugging. “Like, in the shop?”

George looked at Harry, at the door, and down at the key in his hand before looking back at Harry. “I dunno,” he admitted.

“Wanna go get a bite?” Harry asked, jerking his head towards the Leaky Cauldron.

George nodded and put the key back in his pocket. Anything to delay opening that door. They walked up the quiet alley in silence, and with the exception of placing their orders with Tom, were entirely silent until their meals were half finished. Then George finally spoke again.

“I’m surprised to see you alone.”

Harry snorted. “After so many months together, Hermione, Ron, and I needed a bit of a break from each other.”

George considered that for a moment. He couldn’t imagine _wanting_ to be alone, though he could certainly imagine wanting to be away from Ronniekins.

“Besides,” Harry continued, “With them waiving the Seventh year requirement for him, Ron needs to get ready to enter Auror training.”

“You aren’t becoming an Auror?” George asked. “Oh- or are you taking the Eighth year?” Hermione or Mum or someone had mentioned such a thing.

“Nah,” Harry shook his head. “I’m done with Hogwarts. Done with dark wizards and fighting too. I can’t imagine being an auror now. At first I thought I just wanted to be alone, but after about an hour of that I was done. My thoughts are too serious for me to want to be alone with them. So then I thought, ‘I just want to be happy and silly for a little while.’ And that lead me to you.”

Up until that moment, George hadn’t thought he would ever laugh again, but looking at Harry, at his wistful expression, George wanted to make him laugh. “Well as soon as we’re done we’ll go back to the shop,” he heard himself saying. “Things are a bit of a mess, what with everyone gearing up for the battle, but-”

“Oh, I can help clean!” Harry said eagerly - too eagerly. “I’m good at cleaning, and it can be soothing, just the right kind of mindless.”

“Mindless?” Neither of the twins had ever been much for cleaning.

“Like you can just focus on doing this one thing - cleaning - and everything else kind of fades away,” Harry explained. “Its great when you just don’t want to think about anything.”

“Huh,” that sounded pretty great right about now, George had to admit.

They continued to make small talk as they finished their meals and Harry insisted on paying. Then they strolled back to the shop. This time George barely hesitated before unlocking and opening the door, but as soon as he stepped inside he froze again.

The shop really was a shambles, and it hurt to see their - Fred’s - beloved space so torn apart. If George was somewhat more poetic, he might compare the mess to the ruins of his heart right now, but he didn’t have it in him.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but finally he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning slowly, George found Harry neatly stacking fake wands on a shelf. The aisle was half cleared, with the color-changing quill and disappearing ink displays already fixed up neatly. Clearly Harry had been working for a little while.

George saw Harry put a wand in the wrong box and, unthinking, walked over and corrected it. Now closer, he saw one that had been misplaced earlier, and he fixed that too. Harry handed him the next wand, and George put it in its place.

Before he realized it, they had finished with the wands and we halfway through the insulting bookmarks. Harry had been right, George realized. He was able to clean without thinking; without missing Fred.

It took a week, between the two of them, to clean and set to rights the entire shop. During that time, Harry confessed that Sirius had left him Grimmauld Place, but he didn’t want to return there. By the end of the week, Harry had moved in, and Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had reopened for business.

It took almost a month for George to laugh again, but despite his fears, he found his sense of humor returning. It took slightly longer than that for George to admit how he felt about Harry, but once he did, Harry said he was worth the wait. And from that confession on, neither was alone again.


End file.
